Old South Side Community Coalition offers forum for dialogue on issues & ideas
by Chuck Hoven

(Plain Press, September 2009) Creating a pocket park at Tremont Pointe, saving a neighborhood gas station and dealing with out of control traffic at the W. 14 roundabout were among the issues brought to the table at the August meeting of the Old South Side Community Coalition. A standing room only crowd of forty residents packed the meeting room at the Jefferson Branch Library on August 17th to voice concerns about these and other issues.

Lawrence Claude Cornett spoke of his efforts to survey residents of the the South of Jefferson neighborhood to determine if they were supportive of a creating a recreation area in the neighborhood. In all, Cornett noted he had gathered over 60 signatures in favor of creating a pocket park on Jefferson between W. 6th and W. 7th.

Cornett said while he found most Tremont Pointe residents that he surveyed to be supportive of creating a recreation area, a Board member of Tremont Pointe Resident Association tried to intimidate him in the course of doing his surveys.

Cornett urged those in attendance to resist efforts to keep them from participating in pursuing changes they would like to see. “Stand up for our rights and expose those that try to intimidate us,” said Cornett.

Cornett promoted the use of surveys as a means to show greater community support for an idea. He said he goes out and knocks on doors and gathers information. He urged residents willing to do neighborhood surveys to sign up for a neighborhood planning committee. He said the survey’s information helped him to refute statements made by those opposing the recreation area and helped to gain the support of Councilman Joe Cimperman.

Cornett said residents attending neighborhood meetings of Tremont West Development Corporation Block Clubs often found their ideas shot down or ignored. He urged residents to get involved in creating a genuinely democratic community organization, to take ideas for change to the press, and if Tremont West Development Corporation continued to ignore their ideas to secure the resources to pursue the ideas themselves.

Cornett also talked about creating an alternative publication for residents and passed out information on how residents could communicate via a yahoo site.

Cleveland Department of Public Health Director Matt Carroll, a guest speaker at the meeting, addressed the issue of wood burning fires outdoors. He said that city law only permitted the burning of wood for the purpose of cooking food for human consumption. He said a restaurant in the neighborhood, which was burning wood outdoors, was sent a memo noting they were not in compliance with the law. He said the Department of Public Health would work with the restaurant to make sure they were in compliance with the law.

The manager of the Fairfield Gas Station asked for neighborhood support in keeping his station open. The owner of the building said new city regulations for gas stations that also do auto repairs called for them to go before the Board of Zoning Appeals to seek a variance to continue to operate on the site. Neighborhood residents noted that there has been a gas station on the site for over 70 years. Voting members of the Old South Side Coalition voted 19-0 to support the Fairfield Gas Station before the Board of Zoning Appeals.

Residents then discussed an idea floated at a recent South of Jefferson block club meeting to open a Turkish restaurant in a house at 2479 Professor and to create a parking area for it at 2482 Thurman Ave. Cornett noted that Tremont West Development Corporation staff member Sammy Catania upset residents when in promoting the restaurant he said “the whole neighborhood is going commercial anyway.” Cornett said the block club chair person was also promoting the restaurant plan, despite the opposition of residents on Jefferson and Thurman Ave. One Thurman Avenue resident said any proposal to place parking on Thurman would effect all the residents of Thurman because cars would have to travel the length the narrow one way street to enter and exit the space.

Henry Senyak noted that no diagrams had been submitted yet, so there was nothing to formally oppose yet. A resident of Professor, said “I’ve been in my house for 32 years and do not want a restaurant next to my house.”

Another resident suggested there were plenty of commercial properties where the restaurant could go. A resident noted that Councilman Cimperman had said he would not support the restaurant in the residential area. Another resident suggested the restaurant could help fill one of the empty lots at Steelyard Commons.

Jim Mahone of Holmden Avenue raised another issue of problems with speeding trucks coming up the hill to the roundabout at W. 14th.. He worried about speeding trucks breaking through the fence onto his property. He noted the trucks were speeding on the hill and vehicles were not staying in their lane as they negotiate the roundabout. Mahone said he learned that the Ohio Department of Transportation had turned the roadway over to the City of Cleveland. He said the City of Cleveland refuses to place a traffic officer at the location because a car can’t sit on the roadway. Mahone said the yellow 15 m.p.h. signs are ignored. He said official traffic speed signs are needed.

Mahone asked that the area be monitored and the speeding cars videotaped. Residents at the meeting were urged to attend a September 8th 6 p.m. meeting on traffic concerns at the F.D. Roosevelt Post #58 at 2442 Professor Avenue.

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